This Love
by Hikari-and-Yami
Summary: This love is good, this love is bad, this love is glowing in the dark. These hands had to let it go free and this love came back to me. - Puzzleshipping & Blindshipping - A collection of one-shots and drabbles.
1. How You Get the Boy

**Title:** How You Get the Boy

**Summary:** Jou gives Atem love advice.

**Rating:** K+

**Genre:** Romance

**Song Artist:** Taylor Swift

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><p><strong>How You Get the Boy<strong>

_~ And I would wait forever and ever ~_

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><p>"Wait til tonight when it's rainin', go to his house, and confess your undyin' love. Duh."<p>

Atem chuckled, shaking his head and shooting his best friend a look from his spot across the bedroom. "Yeah, right. He'll open up the door and ask if I'm insane."

Jou shrugged. "That's how all the guys in the movies do it." He threw a navy blue shirt in Atem's general direction and continued to rifle through the scarlet-eyed teen's drawers. "Put that on."

With a low grumble, Atem picked up the shirt from the bed where it had landed and turned to look at his reflection in the full length mirror hanging behind his closet door. He put the blue garment up to his neck and examined himself in the mirror. "Well, as much as I like to make major life decisions on the premise of movie outcomes, I can't afford to do so right now. There's too much on the line."

"Well, I don't see ya throwin' out any ideas here." Jou straightened from his hunched position over the dresser and met Atem's gaze through the reflection of the mirror. "I'm tellin' ya, this has a 70% chance of success."

"Where are you even getting that number from?"

Jou flashed him a sheepish smile, which, even in the mirror's reflection, Atem recognized as the blond's signature bullshit grin. Abandoning all attempts to reason with his friend, Atem rolled his eyes and turned his gaze to focus back on the shirt he still held over his chest. After a moment of consideration, Atem shifted his weight onto one leg and, balling his hand into a fist, shirt still in its grip, placed it on his hip. He brought up his other hand to ruffle his hair with a long drawn-out sigh. "This isn't going to work."

"Look, 'Temy - you need to suck it up, man." Jou lifted a hand in the air. "How long has it been since Yugi moved in next door?"

"Three years."

"And you've been in love with him for how long now?"

Atem turned around fully to face his friend, but he couldn't make himself meet Jou's all-knowing amber gaze. "I don't know."

"Yes, you do. Somethin' like two years and 364 days, right?"

Atem's gaze hardened a bit, the cerise eyes staring intently at a discolored spot in his carpet that he found particularly interesting. "Something like that."

"Right. So, humor me then. If you could walk right up to him and tell him how you felt without any chance of bein' shot down, what would you say?"

"Katsuya -"

"No, don't you do that. You're not gettin' out of this. Not this time."

Atem's narrowed eyes finally raised from the floor to meet Jou's gaze. "Fine." Though the word was spat out, the lines in Atem's face softened as images of his violet-eyed next-door neighbor drifted into his mind. "I would tell him," Atem said, voice thoughtful, "that I want him for worse or for better… and that I would wait forever for him."

"And that's how it works," Jou said with a wink. "That's how you get the boy."

Atem grunted when a pair of pants hit his face. He glared at his blond friend in all his frustration, but the look did little to hide his fear and uncertainty. "Are you sure about this?" Atem asked, quieter now.

Jou was practically beaming. "Positive."

**~o~o0o~o~**

_I could still make a run for it._

The thought crept into Atem's mind only moments after he knocked on the imposing chestnut front door of the quaint white house settled only a few yards away from his own home. To be honest, he was actually considering acting on it, his only hesitation being the royal ass-whooping that Jou would impose if he were to return with his tail between his legs. Caught in the middle of his own thoughts, he almost didn't register the chestnut door creaking open just enough so for a pair of sea-pearl eyes to peer out at him. "Atem?" The voice didn't even make an attempt to hide its surprise, and suddenly the door was being opened all the way to reveal a breathtakingly beautiful Yugi, who, to Atem's ultimate demise, was sporting a form-fitting pair of dark blue jeans to complement a midnight black sleeveless tee. "What are you doing here?" Yugi asked, head tilting with curiosity. "Is everything okay?"

Once Atem's eyes had completed their overview of the tease and appeal that was Yugi Motou, Atem opened his mouth to respond. It would only be his luck that, at this very moment, all English words eluded him. "Uhh...umm, huh?" Atem flushed a vicious pink at his pitiful attempt to form a coherent sentence. If he had retained any feelings in his legs, he may have chosen this moment to just walk away, already feeling defeated. But since he was basically glued to his spot, he decided to try again. "Uh, yes, everything is okay... I just..."

He was really sucking at this, he decided. But despite his visible struggle, he did notice that Yugi had made no move to stop him (or save him). No, instead the smaller teen just stood there patiently, still in the threshold of his front door. For a second, Atem swore he could see a hint of a smile playing on those petal-like lips.

Atem sighed and glanced up the sky with a little shake of his head. He guessed there was no turning back now. "I thought you should know something…"

"…Okay." Yugi's face was bright with curiosity but also something else that Atem couldn't quite pinpoint. Amusement?

"Uhh, so we've known each other for a few years now, and I just wanted to tell you...uhh, to let you know... that I am really happy that you moved here and that I really, umm, like spending time with you. I mean, I know that we don't really get to spend a lot of time together in school because we're in different classes and all, but I, umm, really look forward to our walks home from school... and..."

Yugi crossed his arms, shifting so that one hip protruded out slightly. "_And_?" Yugi asked, his eyes imploring.

"And..." Atem swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. "I...sorta, kinda have been in love with you since I met you."

The words tumbled out of his mouth so fast that Atem wasn't sure at first if Yugi even understood what he had just said. After a moment though, it was clear by the look in Yugi's eyes that he did and, what was worse, was just how silently those violet eyes were watching him. It was so quiet, Atem could practically _hear_ Jou's thumbs up from his bedroom's open window. A bubble of anxiety, regret, and panic settling into the pit of his stomach by Yugi's reaction, Atem was just about to lose his composure and fall into a fit of apologies when a soft chuckle broke free from Yugi's lips, shattering the silence.

"Well," Yugi said, uncrossing his arms, a dazzling smile finally breaking across his face. "Took you long enough, you ass."

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><p><strong>AN:** Refer to my profile for more information on this collection of one-shots/drabbles.


	2. Style

**Title:** Style

**Summary:** Sometimes, you don't have to say it.

**Rating:** K+

**Genre:** Romance

**Song Artist:** Taylor Swift

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><p><strong>Style<strong>

_~ And when we go crashing down, we come back every time ~_

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><p>"It's been a while since I have even heard from you."<p>

From his standing position on the sidewalk, Yami glanced curiously at Yugi, the younger man sitting casually on the small cement stairs that led into Yugi's house. "I know," Yami finally said.

Yugi wasn't put off by the lack of apology from the other. No, he was used to this. He craved this. Ever since he had met Yami all those years ago, he had been drawn in by Yami's unwavering personality, by the flowing luscious locks of ebony hair, and the liquid daydream look in Yami's eyes that Yugi often lost himself in.

But Yami couldn't keep his wild eyes on the road, and often fled the warmth and familiarity of Yugi's arms to find a newer and shinier distraction. Not being one to chase, Yugi would just wait patiently until Yami found his way back to him, for the elder always did.

Yami knew he didn't have to say it; he knew that Yugi was aware of how utterly enraptured and entangled he was in Yugi – in the classic good boy look that drove Yami mad with desire, especially because Yami was painfully aware of the absolute front that it actually was.

"I heard you went out with Anzu last week."

"I did," Yami confirmed, again, with the absence of an apology. Yugi found comfort in this, for the presence of one would have been akin to the sky apologizing for being blue. "I thought it would help get you off my mind," Yami said, his voice a bottomless pit of baritone lullabies. "But I can't stop thinking about you."

Yugi lifted his shoulders with a tilt of his head. "I've been there a few times."

Yami turned and angled his head downwards to look at him. "I keep coming back to you."

"I keep letting you."

They shared a timeless unspoken bond - an internal pull towards one another – that was unable to be altered or tainted by external factors, whether that be family, relationships, dreams or goals. Neither of them felt the need or desire to put what they had into words or labels. All they knew was that they both always came back to what they needed. And that was good enough for them.

"What we do…" Yami said, breaking the silence. "Does it… does _this_ ever get old for you?"

Yugi leaned back into his hands and blinked up at him. "No. Does it for you?"

Yami shifted his body around and forward, bending his knees so that he was now hovering over Yugi and tracing the man's lips with his thumb. "Never."

Yugi grabbed Yami's wrist and used it as leverage to lean up and press a kiss against Yami's rosy lips, relishing in the way Yami's breath hitched in his throat and the way his own heart thudded against his chest. Yugi smirked into the kiss.

They would never go out of style.


	3. Wildest Dreams

**Title:** Wildest Dreams

**Summary: **Nothing lasts forever. Except maybe memories.

**Rating: **M

**Genre:** Romance

**Song Artist:** Taylor Swift

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><p><strong>Wildest Dreams<strong>

_~ I can see the end as it begins ~_

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><p>He was so tall and handsome as <em>hell - <em>blessed with sun-kissed tan skin, legs that went on for miles, and toned muscles wrapped in leather, as if his clothes were melted onto his skin. His voice was familiar, yet I was sure that I had never heard it before. His eyes, their coloring that of burning fire, had been watching me intensely all night. _He's so bad, but he does it so well, _my inner libido had purred when he finally approached me from behind, bending down to whisper in my ear.

"_Let's get out of here_," he had said to me, and for a reason I couldn't yet find I had agreed. Without hesitation, I had followed him outside to his car in the nearly empty parking lot of the bar.

_Heaven can't help me now_, I had thought to myself, right before he had pushed me back against the hood of the glittering black Lexus. His hands cupped under the bend of my knees and pulled my legs apart, then up and around his waist as he pushed his lips against mine and forced our hips to grind together in an electrifying moment of unadulterated lust.

I couldn't remember the drive to my place, but suddenly his hands were in my hair and his clothes were in my room.

Everything about this promised our separation at the conclusion of the night - this was the very essence of a one-night stand. I had known this the moment he had pinned me to the bed, the moment we had left the bar, and I had long since accepted it. Even so, I felt the desire to make sure that he wouldn't forget me. I _wanted_ him to remember me, I wanted the memory of me to follow him wherever he went.

"_Ahh! Uhh... Atem_," I hissed when he pulled his throbbing arousal out of me, only to thrust back in to the hilt, both painful and pleasurable in his attempts to fill me completely.

I felt my eyes flutter in their attempt to open and see through the haze. A new burst of heat filled my core when I noticed that his eyes were already on my face, piercing through my every defense.

_Say you'll see me again_, I tried to communicate silently through my half-lidded eyes, _even if it's just in your wildest dreams_.

For just a moment, his scarlet eyes flickered – a glimpse of acknowledgement with a touch of assent. Then he grabbed my chin with his hand, forced my face upwards and, closing his eyes and quickening his thrusts, ravished my mouth with his own.


	4. Clean

**Title:** Clean

**Summary: **Atemu departs to the afterlife. Yugi picks up the pieces.

**Rating: **K

**Genre:** Hurt/Loss/Recovery

**Song Artist:** Taylor Swift

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><p><strong>Clean<strong>

_~ The drought was the very worst...when the flowers that we'd grown together died of thirst ~_

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><p>It was the ten months following the pharaoh's departure that were the hardest for Yugi. The silence in his head and the void in his chest pulled him down into the darkest depths of his own loneliness and heartbreak, drowning him in a wave of despair. Every night, the water would fill his lungs, and he would scream so loud but no one ever heard a thing.<p>

There was nothing he could do when the butterflies that used to flutter in his stomach at Atemu's presence turned to dust and covered his whole room. He lived with their memories and mourned their loss until he couldn't do it anymore; until he couldn't allow himself to live like this anymore - to suffer any longer. So it was one day, those many months later, that he punched a hole in his roof and let the flood carry away all his pain. And it was then when the rain came pouring down as he was drowning that he felt like he could finally breath.

By the morning, gone was any trace of his heartache. It took ten months to move on; to accept Atemu's absence in his life; to recover from his grief; to sober up from the intoxicated state that Atemu had left him in. And now that he was clean, he vowed that he was never going to risk falling in love again.


End file.
